WATCH | Speedboat flips through air at 200 mph during race in US

The high-powered speedboat skimmed across Lake Havasu in Arizona, its throttle pressed harder and harder by its operator until the boat reached more than 200 mph. Then the boat was sucked into the air by its own aerodynamic design and flipped repeatedly before slamming back into the water.

Spectators at the Desert Storm race Saturday were stunned into silence, aside from some gasps and expletives, according to video that was widely shared online and picked up by national media organizations. Shortly after the boat came to rest upright in the water, its driver and throttle man, who were not identified but are known by their race aliases as John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, emerged from the cockpit.

"Safe and in good condition," the boat's team, Freedom One Racing, posted online after the race.

Fans of speedboat racing in the United States have seen such acrobatics before, although perhaps not as dramatic as this one, said Ray Lee, publisher of Speedboat Magazine, who was at the starting line while his videographer recorded nearby. Videos of the event, held on a windy day on the lake, racked up millions of views.

"The boat was suspended in the air for much longer than we are accustomed to seeing," he said in an interview Tuesday. "Others go up and flip and come down."

"Because of the force of the winds," he added, "the boat was higher and spun around, which you don't usually see."

So what do you call that? Did it spin? Did it corkscrew? Was it a 360? Was it a somersault?

"It is hard to say," Lee said. "Any adjective would work."

The Freedom team's boat reached 200.1 mpg and traveled a distance of three-quarters of a mile, he said.

Speedboat racing in the United States has greatly evolved since its beginnings more than a century ago. In June 1904, light, 20-foot-long speedboats slipped through the Hudson River in New York in an organized race among local yacht clubs called the Gold Cup, which eventually led to the establishment of the American Power Boat Association.

"It was really slow back then," said Dana Potts, operations director of the American Power Boat Association. "Two guys in a boat, one shoveling coal into the motor," he continued. "It has come a long way."

The Freedom One Racing team, which was not immediately available for comment Tuesday, said on Facebook that it had raised $20,000 from the event for its military and hospital charities. Lee noted that the team had won the race.

Speedboat race records vary across the United States depending on the types of boats, the length and layout of the courses and the rules chosen by event organizers.

The American Power Boat Association, which was not affiliated with the Lake Havasu race, oversees events among its 5,000 members from 90 clubs across the United States. Its record for the fastest boat at one of its races stands at 140.3 mph, set in 2023 by a Super Cat, a type of catamaran, Potts said.

The world record for boat racing may still belong to Ken Warby of Australia, who reached a speed of 317.58 mph in a jet-powered hydroplane, Spirit of Australia, in 1978, according to Guinness World Records.

A Qatari team speedboat called "The Spirit of Qatar" reached 244 mph in 2014, but that was achieved on a 1-mile course.

The Desert Storm Race was challenging from the beginning. The waters were slightly cooler than usual because of the offseason. Wind gusts were aggressive enough to delay the start by about an hour, to 11:30 a.m., Lee said.

The high-performance, 38-foot catamaran, built mainly of fiberglass, has two drag car racing engines, estimated to pack up to 10,000 horsepower, Lee said. The course was dotted with buoys, marking the start and finish. The Freedom One driver and throttle man were strapped in with multipoint harnesses and helmets.

There was an escape hatch on the bottom, in case the craft landed upside down in the water.

It entered the starting point of the race at about 40 mph, as rules allow. Winds were about 20 mph, Lee estimated. The boat's unique shape meant that its two outside rails created a tunnel between them.

"Air gets packed into that tunnel, essentially lifting the boat out of the water," Lee said.

As the propellers were lifting and speed was building, there was increasingly less drag in the water.

"Then there was a gust of wind and everything came together at once, causing the boat to lift and flipping it around," Lee said. "Which was obviously spectacular."